


A Night Long and Weary

by A_Writing_Pen



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 23:51:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16439177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Writing_Pen/pseuds/A_Writing_Pen
Summary: Short drabbles written for Hurt Noct WeekDay 1: Noctis learns of his destiny early.Day 3: Ardyn finally gets a moment he's longed for, but he also knows that patience brings sweeter fruit.Day 4:Noct's injuries need to be stitched without painkillersDay 5:As his worst fear may come true, Noct finds waiting is the worst partDay 7:Even after restoring the light, phantom pains still linger.





	1. Knowledge

“Can you feel this?” The doctor said poking Noct’s toes lightly with a metal pen. When he could not the doctor pressed a little harder. His foot didn’t so much as flinch and again Noct said he felt nothing. 

Three days had passed since Noctis first awoke after the daemon attack and each day his doctors had given him this same test. Each time he told them he felt nothing, his father would place his hand on Noct’s shoulder. His father, who had always been so busy with duties that Noct at times would not see him for days, made a point to be there every time to hear the bad news so that he could repeat the gesture.

“These things take time, your highness,” the doctor said. Noct wasn’t sure if the doctor was addressing him or his father.

He hated being stuck in bed. There was nothing to do but sleep or be bored, and when he slept he dreamt of the attack. When he was awake there were only fussing attendants or doctors that poked and prodded him. At times he would pretend to be asleep, just so they would leave him. That was how he first heard them talking.

Regis dismissed the doctor and other attendants. Before he even reached for the storybook, Noct knew his father was going to read him another story, what had become their nightly ritual. Sitting in a chair he pulled up to Noct’s bedside, Regis thumbed through the book looking for the part where he last left off. Noct stared at the familiar ring as his father turned the pages.

“I think we should take a trip to Tenebrae” He said, finding the page. 

“Am I going to walk again?” Noct said.

Though the doctors always said he would heal with time, he could feel where the demon had struck him but nothing below. No one had told him for how long he had been asleep, but long enough that the adults seemed worried.

His father looked up from the page, and placed his hand back on Noct’s shoulder. “Of course,” he said.

“How do you know?” Noct said. “How am I supposed to be the True King if I can’t walk.”

Regis dropped the book. Sometimes Noct regretted asking his father, because that was the last time his father read him a story.

 

“Can you feel this?” Noct said.

He held Ignis’s hand as he lay on the ground. There were burns on both of Ignis’s arms, across his eyes, and torso, all stemming from the Ring of the Luci. The light of the crystal made the scars darken to sickening hue.

“I can’t see,” Ignis said.

“You’re going to be alright.” Noct said, taking the ring off his hand and placing it on his own.

Carefully, he lifted Ignis up by his shoulders, letting him look in the direction of the crystal. Prompto and Gladio clambered close to support him, but Noct kept his hand on his shoulder. As he had seen his father do so many times, he invoked the ring’s power, feeling it respond to his will.

His father never told him how much it hurt.


	2. Patience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ardyn finally gets a moment he's longed for, but he also knows that patience brings sweeter fruit.

“I’ve waited so long for this,” Ardyn said as he removed the knife from Noct’s side.

Noct’s strength went with the knife as he fell to the ground next to what had been an illusion of Luna. He had no potions and no mana left. No friends by his side either.

He had been stupid. He had exerted too much effort fighting Leviathan and rushed to recklessly to reach Ardyn. And like always it had been a trick. With Ardyn taking his time gloating, he only had one option left to him, but it would likely kill him.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Ardyn said, “Why hurry things along?” and he stepped Noct’s hand, preventing him from putting on the ring of the Luci.

Ardyn surveyed the chaos around him, feeling at home in it. He remembered a scene long past, before Altissia had ever been conceived as a nation, and the altar had been only a small gathering of stone. The Sea Mother had not raged then as she did now, when he stabbed a beloved cousin his brother sent as a peacemaker. But the way Noct writhed was far more satisfying.

If he did not lift his foot, then the prophecy would never be fulfilled. His reign of darkness would be inevitable. And eternal. The parts of him long dead to darkness stirred again. If immortality had taught him one thing, it was the boredom was just as undying and patience was a sweet fruit.

Slowly, he removed his foot from Noct’s hand. The smile only faded slightly when he saw the long familiar weapons of the Luci appear. Another memory returned; the agony of his brother spending his last breath to deliver a strike on him.

“What did I tell you,” He said.


	3. Stitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts
> 
> Closing a wound awake w/no pain killers.  
> Fictober “We still have time”

Ignis took out the medical kit and began sterilizing the needle with a fire spell. Noctis reclined back, resting his head on the wall. With his uninjured arm, he kept a cloth wrapped around the gash on his arm and waited for the inevitable stitches. They had used the last of their potions in the last fight, so they were reduced to rudimentary means for their wounds.

The four of them had yet to even reach Ardyn. The odds looked increasingly dim, but grim as it was Noct could help the grim nostalgia he felt seeing the city again. He could still remember the products on the decaying advertisements.

Ignis handed Prompto the needle when it finally cooled. He threaded it. Not far from them, Gladio kept watch for demons.

“You ready?” Prompto said.

“As I’ll ever be.” Noct removed the cloth.

Prompto did quick work. From the way he held the needle, Noctis surmised the years hunting had made him an expert at treating injuries. It still hurt though. He used his knew to support his arm, it was vital he keep his arm steady.

Noct tried to recall what the plot of one of the movie posters on the wall was, but realized the release date was a month after the fall. He never saw it. When he finished with the sutures, Prompto cut the thread and tied it closed.

Noct flexed his arm to test the motion. Using weapons with that arm would be difficult but at least blood wouldn’t slacken his grip.

“We should leave soon,” Gladio said.

“We don’t have to leave just yet,” said Ignis, “We still have time.”

“Yes, we do,” Noct said, knowing that they didn’t.


	4. Waiting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts:
> 
> Fictober: ”I hope you have a speech prepared.”   
> Hurt Noct Week: A council member tries to kill Regis a la Julius Caesar in front of Noctis, who jumps in front of his dad.

“You’ll need a new suit and tie before you go out in front of the press,” Cor said, “I hope you have a speech prepared.”

Noct’s tie and suit jacket had been cut by the dagger, but didn’t have the chance to cut through skin. Still, Noct could tell that Cor was angry with him, even if he held off on the lecture. No one else was permitted in the waiting room. The glaives had secured the floor in case of another assassination attempt. Not even Ignis or Gladio had been allowed to wait with him.

“How’s he doing?” Noctis said.

“Still in surgery. We’ll know when the doctor’s come out.”

Noctis leaned his head on the wall and tried not to feel stupid. He felt guilty instead. His father always expected a surprise attack from the empire, but never expected it from one of his advisers.

Cor briefed him on what needed to be done. Should the King survive his injury, the country needed to reassured that the shield would hold while he recovered. If he didn’t, Cor told him it was best to deal with one thing at a time.

Noct gripped the sleeve of his torn coat. Acting like a brat at this time would only make things worse. He knew everyone had doubts about him; he had been sheltered from much of the war and he shirked his duties. In that time his father had greyed early and turned frail, and he feared both the loss of his father and bearing the same burden. If he had to become King tonight, there couldn’t be much of a worse start.

“It’s my fault.”

Noct warped to defend his father to deflect the advisor’s attack. What he hadn’t realized was the accomplice, attacking his father from behind. Regis used his magic to defend them both, fast enough to stop the dagger from cutting him. But having been so preoccupied keeping Noct safe, failed to protect himself from the second.

“I approved all the guests,” Cor said, “I was also supposed to be sure no weapons were brought into the room.”

“Do you really think I could be king, If I had to be,” Noct said.

Cor was quiet for longer than he needed to be.

“Just worry about the press for now Noct,” Cor said.


	5. Ache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompts
> 
> • FREE/CATCH-UP DAY  
> • Prompt: Noct survives but deals with things like phantom pains and residual effects from using the ring.

The pain woke him early in the morning. Noctis realized that his days of sleeping in were long over as his arm throbbed. His other injuries still hurt, but the lasting damage from the ring reached deep into his bones.

The morning light crept through the broken windows of the abandoned inn the four of them decided to spend the night in. Noct reminded himself to be grateful there was morning light.

Sitting up on the dusty bed he felt his joints crack. His father had developed arthritis early in life. The signs started before his hair turned grey. If he never had to use the ring or the power of the crystal again, he wondered how long before his symptoms became worse.

Gladio and Prompto were still asleep. The darkness destroyed most people’s sense of day and night, which was why he was surprised to see Ignis awake.

“I almost thought you were going to start making breakfast,” Noct said.

“I could, though there’s only stale bread and some leeks until we resupply.”

He drank from the hot tea he had made himself, since Ebony was rarer to find. Noct leaned against the wall and looked out the window.

“I probably wouldn’t eat it anyways.”

“Still picky.”

Noct’s right hand hurt again. He gripped it closely, with his left.

“Does it still hurt?” Ignis said.

“A bit,” Noct had grown used to Ignis’s perception. “It’s been two weeks since I last used the ring.”

Ignis felt for the counter and put down the tea.

“It’s too soon to assume anything.”

Noctis kept looking at the sunrise. Even the falling dust seemed to sparkle in the light.

“Did it ever stop hurting?” Noct said.

“No, not really.” He picked up his tea again.


End file.
